Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5447  ·  NGC 5449  ·  NGC 5450  ·  NGC 5451  ·  NGC 5453  ·  NGC 5455  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5461  ·  NGC 5462  ·  NGC 5471  ·  NGC 5477  ·  Pinwheel galaxy
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M101 in LRGB, Girish Muralidharan
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M101 in LRGB

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M101 in LRGB, Girish Muralidharan
Powered byPixInsight

M101 in LRGB

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Description

M101, the pinwheel galaxy, is 170,000 light-years across — nearly twice the diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way. M101 is estimated to contain at least one trillion stars. The galaxy’s spiral arms are sprinkled with large regions of star-forming nebulas. These nebulas are areas of intense star formation within giant molecular hydrogen clouds. Brilliant, young clusters of hot, blue, newborn stars trace out the spiral arms.Pierre Méchain, one of Charles Messier’s colleagues, discovered the Pinwheel galaxy in 1781. Located 25 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major, M101 has an apparent magnitude of 7.9. It can be spotted through a small telescope and is most easily observed during April.  
 Acquired this back in April and finally got around to processing..

L = 30 x 300'
OSC RGB = 90 x 120'

Total integration time : 5 hrs 30'

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M101 in LRGB, Girish Muralidharan